Fell in love with a girl
by dc861
Summary: I fell in love with someone over the internet. Not some pornstar, just a gamer girl. She was kind of like me, aside from the different gender thing.  Myself x cupcakezombie8
1. Reboot

-This story uses the usernames of real drivers in Need for Speed: World. Please do not spam them, or harass them. Their real names have been changed at their request. THIS STORY IS FICTIONAL, WITH REAL CHARACTERS.-

As I booted up the PC in my office, I was wondering how Need for Speed World had changed since my last log on, almost four months ago. I had stopped primarily because of RAM issues, and hadn't been able to log in, so I was hoping that my friends were still around in the game.

Once I had finally gotten the 32 processor gaming PC to the desktop, I double-clicked the NFSW file, and started up the client. _Hmmm, weird… Guess they increased car price, _I thought, as I noticed the brand-new Koeniggsegg CCX "Elite" edition for 25000 speedboost. _No WAY anyone bought that. _After I logged in and downloaded the patch, I selected my driver, "CHEEZBURGER861". I exited the safehouse into the world, and noticed immediately something had changed.

Every car around me was expensive. Not just cars that were, say, a million IGC, but cars like the Koeniggsegg, which cost 70 bucks in real life. Being the kind of rash person I am, I immediately challenged one of the nearby Pagani Zonda drivers to a race against my BMW Z4. I won, as the experienced driver, but was still extremely surprised at how badly the Z4 had been nerfed.

I opened the friends console, and was surprised to see a whole 27 of my 100 friends online. _Weird,_ I thought. _Normally, there are only 2 or 3 of them._

As I sent a PM to my friend FIREWOLFY, the famous Cops and Robbers organizer, I drove around town seeing the new sights. It being just after Christmas, there was snow on the ground near the golf course, and fireworks were shooting off in the distance, towards turnpike.

"Hey, long time no see!" I typed to FIREWOLFY.

"Yeah, you too!" he messaged back. I asked him if I could join his cops and robbers group, and almost immediately got an invite.

"Where have you been?" the voice came over the speakers.

"Around," I typed back. I may have had a totally epic PC, but I didn't have a compatible microphone, so I couldn't reply via voice chat. "My PC had a BSOD, so I had to pick up a new one. Thank god for stuff to sell, because it got me the $2500 I needed for this new one."

"Cool," he replied. I heard the sounds of Dubstep coming from one of the other driver's mic. That was my old friend "IAN346". He got his account hacked right before my PC died, but he had already gotten his new account all the way to level 50.

"Ian, can you turn that shit off? For the BILLIONTH time, you're the only person who likes it!"

"Woah, burger! Is that you?" he replied. "You haven't been around in a while!"

"Yeah…"

Suddenly, my friends list made a notification "bleep bloop". I clicked on it, and realized I had a friend request from another driver in the group, "CUPCAKEZOMBIE8". I clicked on her profile, and noticed first and foremost her motto: "Yeah, I'm a girl, and I can beat all of you guys!"

"Hey cupcakezombie!" I typed to her.

"Yeah? :P" she replied.

"If you're really, such a good racer, let's see that skill. You and me, Main Street circuit. T-1's only."

"Kk," she said back. "I'm gonna go grab my other car."

I started the lobby for a two lap race at Main Street. I checked her stats and car in the race stats section, and discovered her fancy Nissan 2000GT-R. So, then, it was her Japanese handling vs my American muscle, in my Chevrolet Chevelle. The ready timer counted down. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0:00."

The race began. Right off the line, my chevelle had the lead, the extra horsepower triumphing over the nissan's stiffer suspension. But immediately after, her transmission kicked in, slingshotting her around me on the first turn. I upshifted, and throttled as hard as I could onto the top level of the overpass as she took the bottom. When we came out the end, she cut directly in front of me, and I had to tap the brakes, losing the precious speed that I was going to use to stay in front. Coming around the fourth-to-last turn before the lap timer, I was able to force her out of the entrance of the shortcut into the construction site, forcing her to take the normal street. As she went past the museum, I went over it, jumping over her into the lead. There, my chevelle's increased weight allowed me to get a little extra speed, thanks to the downhill. She beat me across the line, but around the turn, I surged ahead of her. The next lap went very similarly, up until the short cut.

The construction site has a very narrow entrance, only about two car-widths wide. Somehow, she got in there with me, and we kept a steady pace all the way up the jump. We went off into the downhill section, and around the final turn, and we were about to cross the line, and then-

It was over. She came in exactly ten nanoseconds behind me.

"Whew, you're good!" I typed.

"You too!" she replied.

"Hey, uh, you wanna go hang out at turnpike?"

"Yeah, I guess. Should I grab another car?"

"If you want… Say, that reminds me." I went into my safehouse, and with the 8000 speedboost I had saved up from codes over my hiatus, bought myself a brand new Jag, along with an Alfa Romeo. I stuck my signature "cheeseburger" on the rear bumper of the alfa, and left my safehouse, headed for the south end of the map.

"Hey cheezburger?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind accepting that friend req?"

"Oh shit, yeah. My bad!"

"No prob. "

We met up at the Chinatown Dragon, and drove south towards turnpike.

"Nice car," she commented.

"Oh, the alfa? Yeah, always wanted one…"

"Me too. Man, wish I could buy more speedboost…" And that got me thinking. I had read that over the last month, they had implemented a gifting system into NFS world, and so, I clicked the BOOST store button in the upper right corner.

"Check you safehouse," I told her.

"Why?"

"Just a hunch." Her car popped out of existence for about thirty seconds, and then, her username reappeared over a shiny. new, red alfa romeo 8c.

"You didn't."

"Well, someone must've. :P" I replied.

"Thank you so much!"

"No prob. That's what friends are for, to be friends. Just a cool-new-friend thing."

"Let's go show Wolfy!"

"Sounds good." We turned around and drove back up towards the golf course, where FIREWOLFY and Ian were chatting. In our new, ultra-light alfa's, we could jump hundreds of feet off of the ski jumps. After a few well aimed ones, we landed right next to FIREWOLFY.

"Look what cheez bought me!" she said. She sounded so excited. She whispered me, "You don't mind if I call you Cheez, do you?"

"Only if I can call you Cupcake."

And so, our relationship began…


	2. Cops and robbers

Cupcake and I had been hanging out in need for speed world more often, and we had been the best of friends now for almost a month. We were an unstoppable team. We could beat anyone and everyone. Hell, we even took down the Teenage Transporter and his crew!

I gave her a bit of insight into American muscle, and bought her a Boss 302, and then she saw fit to send me a Toyota MR-2, to teach me the mystic power of the Japanese tuning industry.

"Hey, cheez?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"How old are you?" I was completely unprepared at that point for that sort of question.

"Wait, what? Why?"

"I'm just wondering…"

"I'm 15."

"Omgsh, you too?" she replied. "Cool! I'm turning 15 next month."

"Oh really? Well, if you're gonna ask a stalker question, I'll ask one too. Where are you?"

"I'm in California."

"No shit? What part? I'm up in Oakland."

"OMFG! What are the chances of that!"

"I'm in Montclair, how 'bout you?" I asked, guessing she was in the Dimond area.

"Oh. My. God! I'm right by temescal!" she said.

((For those of you who don't know: In the city of Oakland, Montclair is right next to the tmescal area. –DC))

"Wow… That close…"

"Yeah, really."

"…"

"Hey, you wanna go do a few team escapes?"

"Sure," I replied.

Tbe first team escape (unsurprisingly) had 2 n00b tank hackers who tried to ram us into walls and stuff, but we still finished, just barely. The next one was a bit more interesting, as we invited RAZORX33 and WHITEFOXY, probably the two best known NFS world community members. They were fair racers, and waited for their team. WHITEFOXY is a vinyl specialist, and RAZORX33 is one of the best known car reviewers in world, along with the fact that he's one of the best racers.

After a few more TE's, we drove to turnpike, and invited a few of our friends into a group. They were RAZORX33, FIREWOLFY, BABYGIRL, HELL31, and COBRAGIRL618.

"Hey all," said Razor in his british accent over the mic.

"Hey razor," we all replied.

"Oh hey," I said to the group.

"What?" asked HELL31.

"I got a mic!" I said over voice chat.

"Cool!" everyone replied.

"Now you don't have to type in cops and robbers!" said wolfy, in his Canadian-french tone of voice he always reserved for gameplay. "Speaking of which, let's get a game. I'll invite Ian and some others, Burger, Cupcake, and Hell can be the first 3 robbers."

Now, cops and robbers is a tough game. It can go for as little as 5 minutes, to as long as 2 hours. There are 21 cops and 3 robbers. The robber's job is to stay off the cop's map, and the cop's job is to keep the robber on their map as long as possible. The general max for keeping the robber in pursuit (on minimap) is around ten minutes, and the game doesn't end till all the robbers are busted.

As wolfy invited more people to the game, cupcake and I cruised around the map, looking for hiding spots. You can't go to the same place twice. Suddenly, Ian came over the mic.

"Hey guys, you ready?"

"Yeah!" I said.

"Yep!" Typed in cupcake. She then whispered me. "Hey, I've got a mic, let's do a private voice chat during the game."

"What? How come you never used it before?"

"Idk, just never thought about it."

_Do you want to start a voice chat with CUPCAKEZOMBIE8?_ the text came over the screen. I clicked yes, and said, "You there?"

"Yeah," replied the most beautiful voice I had ever heard.

"Woah, you've got a nice voice."

"Yeah, I sing a lot in rockband and stuff. Actually, I'm a pretty good singer in real life, too."

"Really? Cool. I play bass guitar pretty well. Maybe we should start a band!"

"Hah! Fat chance. Anyway, we've got 30 seconds till they start searching, I'm gonna switch to my Porsche."

"Your what?" And then I remembered, her beautifully styled Porsche 911 GT3 RS. It was mostly white, with pink and black detailing. "Oh yeah," I added. "I'm gonna grab my LF-A."

For the most part, when one of us was a robber, we let someone else be one, so we could both be on the same team. When we were both robber though, we only split up when we had to. We watched each other's backs, and took out any and all cops trying to follow us. And ever since collisions were added to freeroam, it was a lot more fun to do cops and robbers. Speaking of which…

"4, 3, 2, 1, GO!" shouted Razor.

"Let's head for the turnpike tunnels," said cupcake.

"Okay!" I yelled, realizing that there were already 2 cops following us, MXPIRATE and THABTO. "On your left!" I warned. She veered right, and THABTO followed, only to be sideswiped by me. He then fell back, and MXPIRATE ran into him, taking them both out temporarily.

"Hey cheez?"

"Yeah?"

"You can call me Sarah."

"Is that your real name? Cool, I'm Don."

"Nice to know you by your real name. Anyway, let's focus on the road ahead. Got a roadblock coming up." I checked my minimap, and she was right; a line of drivers in muscle cars had lined up across the freeway ahead.

"I've got this," I said, as I tapped the "1" button on my new PC racing wheel. An orange shield popped up in front of my lexus, and with my now increased torque and mass, bashed through the middle 2 cars, Razor's corvette and Wolfy's viper. "Juggernaut," I explained. "For when you need to go through roadblocks without scratching your paint."

"That reminds me," Sarah said. "I should stock up on powerups."

"Hey! Could use a hand on the south end!" shouted HELL31 over the other mic channel.

"Got it, we're on our way," I replied. "We're the wanted drivers in this chase, let's rock."

We made our way south, across the turnpike. Since they had opened it up, I still hadn't explored the new canyons on the other side. I opened up the throttle on my Lexus, and sped across the bridge at 247 miles per hour, as Sarah followed suit. I caught a glimpse of HELL31 going around one of the hairpin curves of the mountain, and of the 3 cops following his bright red Shelby Supersnake.

"Having trouble drifting that?" I chuckled to him. "Let some JDM tuner in there to help give those cops the slip." We sped up the mountain, setting up and heading directly towards HELL's pursuers, BABYGIRL, Ian, and DRAGONHEART. _Wanna play chicken?_ I mused. _Let's go,_


	3. Near miss

As Sarah and I sped towards Ian and BABYGIRL, we contemplated the wisdom of a head on crash with two Lamborghinis.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sarah' voice came over the speakers.

"Ummm… Is 'not really' a good answer?"

"Good enough, let's show these sons of bitches." We sped towards the cops, getting ever closer.

_1000 feet to collision, _my mind counted down.

_600 feet._

_500 feet._

_300 feet._

_100 feet._

_35 feet._

_10 fee-_

Suddenly, the two cops veered around us, and we turned around the next corner. But, when trying to make a U-turn, Ian's Gallardo had gone sailing off the edge of the cliffs. We wouldn't be seeing him for a while.

"Hey HELL, you there?" I asked.

"Yeah, still got BABYGIRL on my tail" he typed. I looked in my rear view, and the last thing I saw was him going flying off the cliff.

"Well now, it's just you and me," said Sarah, breaking my trance.

"What? Yeah. Okay. Let's get off the cliffs, head for a safehouse so we can change car. I need something else, the Lexus just isn't agreeing with the driving style today."

"Sounds good, let's go for the lower rockport stadium."

Suddenly, as I glanced in my rear view, a white cop lotus came screaming around the bend.

"Let's hurry this up!" I shouted.

Back down off the mountain, and at our safehouse, I switched into my Lamborghini Aventador.

"Going Italian, Don?" commented Sarah, now in her dark-green Audi R8 5.2.

"Yeah, sorta. It's the AWD that really does it for me though. Let's go for the golf course, do some jumps. Maybe we can-"

Immediately, the white lotus that had been chasing us came roaring onto the field. Along with 5 other cops.

"Go, go, GO!" shouted Sarah.

"I'm going!" I replied.

At the golf course, we were still trying to ditch them, so we tried heading into the trails. That seemed to help, as the lowered BOSS 302's and Challenger SRT-8's couldn't handle the jumps and bumps. The first branch we saw, we took. All but the Exige missed the turn, so we had effectively ditched 5/6 of the cops currently chasing us.

"This lambo corners pretty good, but I need something heavier. I can't move shit like this."

"Alright, let's head for fortuna. There's a problem though."

"I hope it isn't a math problem," I chuckled.

"We've got fifteen patrols between here and the 'burbs."

"That counts as a math problem. Well, I suppose this is as good a time as any for those matte-colered-cars," I suggested, reffering to my matte black lamborghini, and her matte army-camo Audi."

"Sneaking time!" she laughed. _She's got a beautiful voice,_ I thought.

The first patrol was Ian, so we had no problem sneaking past. Now that the game had weather and day-night switches, the rainy-and-dark combo worked really well. The next few weren't so tough, and the last few had moved, so we had a straight shot to the fortuna safehouse, where we both picked out some American muscle; Sarah, in her Camaro ZL1, and me, in my Ford GT.

"Let's go bash some heads," we both said at the same time.

The first thing we encountered was a perimeter. Apparently, those patrols that had left were just setting up to box us in. No worries, though, as we just plowed straight through in our 4000 pound, 700 horsepower muscle machines.

"Not a scratch," reported Sarah.

"Same here," I replied. "Wait- ON YOUR RIGHT!" An iridescent black dodge challenger came roaring out of the night into the intersection, T-boning her camaro onto the next street over. "SARAH!" I yelled, as I charged around the corner and dispatched the cop with a quick blow to the left-back quarter panel.

"I'm okay," she replied. "Surprised as fuck, but ready to go."

"Okay, let's head for turnpike. Only 12 minutes left in the game."

The streets were eerily quiet. Not a single traffic car nor cop. And oddly enough, the streetlights weren't working. That was an interesting feature from the last update. The moonlight shone on the rain, but otherwise, it was completely dark aside from our highbeams.

"You know Don, this is kinda…"

"What?"

"I don't know, romantic."

I heard a noise and glanced left, but it was only thunder.

"Romantic?"

"Yeah. You know…"

"What?"

"I kind of like you." I was completely unprepared for this. I had no idea what to say.

"Umm… Wow."

"I'm sorry to be rude, it's just-"

"I know. I've felt like I just had to get something like that off my chest before. And you know what?" I paused.

"What?"

"I kind of like you too."

Suddenly, in front of us, I heard a re-ignition sound, and the headlights of a pagani zonda popped on. Behind us, however, was something much less subtle. The gas station behind us exploded.

"SON OF A BITCH!" I yelled.

"Aah!" yelled Sarah.

"RUN!"

We throttled it. Our cars were modified with the highest parts officially available in game without hacks, and yet we BARELY stayed ahead of Razor's Koeniggsegg, Wolfy's Pagani, and Ian's Porsche 911. We BARELY made it to turnpike. We BARELY finished the run before time ran out. In fact, the only thing that wasn't "barely" in that next 5 minutes was our decision to meet up at the starbucks in the Montclair Villiage the next day.


	4. Happy birthday

(DON'S INPUT ON THIS STORY, just because characters need input too.)

Now, being 17 and a half, people MUST think I'm some sort of dropout, since I'm not in school. Wrong. I got out of school six months ago, I'm on my off-year between high school and college. Graduated from Oakland Tech, headed for UT Austin.

And, being 17, I have a driver's license.

And I'm a DAMN good driver.

3 months after previous chapter.

As I woke up in the morning, I glanced over at my clock. 8:30. Good, that meant I had enough time to go by Ben's house before coffee with Sarah. I headed downstairs, grabbed the keys, and left a note on the kitchen table.

_Hey Griff, when you get home (finally) from your girlfriend's house, give me a ring. I'm out and about._

I walked out the kitchen door into the garage. Griffin was a friend of mine, and we were roommates until we could both afford our own living spaces. I noticed the oil spot where his

'69 Boss 302 usually was, and walked carefully over it to get to the driver's side door of my new Dodge Challenger. It was an orange SRT-8 hemi, with a 6.1 liter HEMI V-8 rated for 525 horsepower with the supercharger I had installed. I started it up, listening to the throaty roar of the engine. I carefully drove the massive car out onto the street, and headed down the hill towards the village.

Once I got to Ben's house that he lived in with his girlfriend, I noticed three things, but one in particular. His girlfriend, Erin's Porsche, his Honda NSX, and something you don't see every day: a white Pagani Zonda Cinque.

"Hey Ben!" I yelled in the front screen door.

"Yeah, what?" he called from the other room.

"I think some millionaire mistook your house for his… Why is there a Pagani Zonda in your driveway?"

"Oh, that?" he chuckled. "Birthday present. Rental. 40 k a week."

"Holy fuckin monkey balls, dude! That's most of my yearly salary!"

"Yeah? Well, my uncle's resourceful. Software designers can earn a lot if they try."

"Happy birthday, by the way."

Suddenly, a text popped up on my phone.

_Hey Don, I don't know why, but the 8:30 bus hasn't come yet. Any chance I could get a pick up?_

I replied: _Woah, Isabel, I can do a LOT better than that._

"Hey, Ben, any chance I could borrow your NSX in about half an hour?"

"Sure, why not? Bring it back in pieces, though, and your Challenger's THROUGH."

"Got it," I chuckled. "Oh, and I may need to borrow it for a little longer than just today."

"Like how long?"

"Bout a week."

"I've got a million-dollar-mobile, I think I'll live. Anyway, have fun with that girl."

"You too with yours!"

"Fuck you too, asshole." He chuckled, glancing at Erin on the couch next to him. I'm not sure what they said to each other, but they both looked at me with the STUPIDEST, most MISCHEIVIOUS smiles on their faces. Were they thinking about Isabel and I? Wow.

I pulled up to the bus stop, and called out to the beautiful girl named Isabel. She was my girlfriend, I guess you could say. We did almost everything together. We hadn't kissed or anything yet, but we both knew it was coming.

"Hey Donny." She had been calling me that since the first day we met in person. "Did I miss anything after you went home yesterday?"

"No, not really… Anyway, let's head down to the village. Starbucks was pretty empty when I went by earlier, and I want to do something fun with you afterwards."

"Fun? Bow chicka bow wow." She had been saying that ever since I introduced her to the web series that I had scored an internship at while I was at UT.

"Hey, quit that."

"Oh, come on…"

"Fine. Hey chicka bum bum."

"That's the spirit!"

We got coffee. I got my usual Caramel Macchiatto, and she got an espresso.

"Great coffee. So, what was it you wanted to do?"

"First of all, Isabel, have you ever seen a Zonda in real life?"

"Oh. My. GOD! You don't seriously have one, do you?"

"No. But Ben rented one."

"Good enough, let's go!"

We pulled up to Ben's house a second time, and Isabel immediately got to work ogling the four-exhaust-piped monster of a car.

"The real thing!" she shouted. We walked inside, where Ben and Erin were still sitting on the couch.

"So this is your little friend?" Ben teased. It was true, she was about four inches shorter than me, which put her at about 5'4". She was still, though, the most _beautiful_ brunette I had ever met, and she had a personality to match. She was an amazing girl.

"Shut up, Ben. Ben, this is Isabel. Isabel, Ben. Isabel, this is Erin. Erin, Isabel."

"Hi," Isabel said. "I'm Donald's girlfriend."

"Wh- Uh, yeah. So, uh, Ben, keys?" Isabel turned and stared at me.

"You didn't."

"Yeah, you're right. I didn't, You'll get to drive it, but not yet. However, you do get to drive-"

"Here." Ben tossed Isabel the keys to his NSX. "Don't break it."

"Okay, now I think I'm dreaming. What's with all the keys?" Erin had grabbed the keys to her Porsche, and Ben had grabbed the push-button starter to his Zonda.

"Hey, it's such a wonderful coincidence that you and Ben have the same birthday," said Erin. "Shall we?"

We got out of the driveway, and headed out towards Emeryville. First thing we did was grab a few burgers at Fuddruckers, then, I headed for the 101.

"Okay," said Isabel over the car-to-car intercom we had set up. "Now what?"

The other three were following behind me, Ben especially carefully.

"Anyone for a road trip?"

"What? Where to?" Isabel was completely bewildered. "I'm gonna let Dari know I'll be gone a few days." She dialed her phone.

"WATCH THE ROAD," Ben said sternly.

"Sorry," she replied.

I had taken the liberty of downloading the planned route of our road trip. Starting in Oakland, driving to L. A., then Las Vegas, and from there to Austin, Texas.

"Wow," said Isabel as she glanced at the map. "That's a long way."

"And, we'll be trading cars on occasion!" said an excited Erin.

"Yep!" I replied.

The first leg of our trip was EXTREMELY open. There are almost _no_ speed traps, nor patrols, down Highway 1, and for the most part, since it was the middle of the day (about noon) there was _no_ traffic. We traveled for the most part at around 85 miles an hour, the AWD on the Porsche and Honda keeping them ahead, as they were able to be much more stable. At about three in the afternoon, when we had been driving for 4 hours, I spotted a memory. An old sign that denoted one of my favorite towns in Southern California. Thousand Oaks.


	5. Love is Something

-Don: So, Mr. Author, you're sort of using this NFS WORLD meeting thing to get another story in your head out there?

-DC861: Maaaaaybe…

((NOTE: I don't encourage underage drinking. Experimenting is highly encouraged, however, as it teaches you to drink then, so you don't feel the need when you're older with a family.))

As we pulled off the highway, I talked about how nice this town was.

"It's a nice, open little town. You don't see many cops around, last time I was here, I saw 3 mucielagos and a DB-9, and it's got great lodging, along with a fantastic place to eat."

"Doesn't your god brother live here?" asked Ben.

"Yeah, actually. Maybe we could stay at his house. Ever since his parents moved to Malibu, he's had all of those ten-thousand-square feet to himself."

"Woah, big house. Anyway, does he have a garage?"

"Yeah. And, if we're careful, we can fit the Zonda and the Porsche inside."

"Why not my NSX?" Ben complained.

"1," I countered, "If it rains, do you really want an open top roadster with no targa top out in the street? 2, the aforementioned roadster with no top that costs _a million dollars_ out on the street? 3, the rental million dollar car out on the street? 4, the 2015 porsche 918 spyder- with no top- out on the street?"

"Yeah, I guess it would be putting them sort of up for grabs…"

"Yeah," I chuckled. "No shit."

We pulled away from the mall and towards the suburbs. _Damn, this town's STILL nice. It's either grass on one side of the street or the other, and it's got this small-town feel in a town that's bigger than Oakland._ _Cool_. I got out, knocked on the door, and was greeted by my 19 year old god brother.

"Hey, 'sup Don?"

"Not much. How're you, Isaac?"

"I'm pretty good. Who are your friends?"

"These are Ben, Erin, and Isabel. Ben and Erin are a couple, same goes for Isabel and I. APPARENTLY." I glared at Isabel, and chuckled. She returned my grin.

"Wow. So, I'm guessing, you guys wanna crash here for the night?"

"How'd you guess?"

He invited us in, and we all sat down at his dining room table.

"Coke, anyone?" he offered. "Sprite? Beer?"

"I'll take a Coke," I replied.

"Sprite," said Ben.

"Beer," said Isabel and Erin at the same time.

"Oh really? Much more daring, I see." Isaac grinned.

"Cut it out, you three," I said.

We drank our beverages, played a little tournament NFS hot pursuit, and then headed to bed.

"Ben and Erin, you guys can take the master bedroom, Donald and Isabel, you guys get my old room. I'll take the guest room, I don't exactly need a double bed for one person."

"Wait, what?" Isabel looked at me funny.

"Don't worry, we're not going to bed for a while. I've got something to show you."

I let Ben and Erin to go to bed, and then I took Isaac over to the corner.

"Hey, if you hear anything outiside in about half an hour, it's just us. Don't worry."

"Got it."

Isabel and I headed over to our room for a conversation.

"What was that this morning?"

"Well, we HAVE been going out for 3 months. And I really do love you."

"I know. I love you too." She leaned forward to kiss me.

"No. We need to go somewhere else. It's almost midnight. Follow me, I've had to sneak out of this house before." We climbed out the window and hopped quietly down onto the awning above the pool deck. _Shh_, I motioned to her. We quietly jumped and rolled down onto the grass, and then went around to the front of the house. Fortunately. I had been planning this for three hours and remembered the keys. We rolled the Challenger down the street and started it at the corner.

Lucky I also remembered 2 bottles of corona.

"Where are we going?" Isabel asked as we drove down the street.

"I've known about this place for five years… Always lived up in Oakland, always known about an amazing spot up in the hills."

It was now almost 1 am. She convinced me to stop by starbucks and grab her a double espresso.

"You sure you're not addicted to caffine?" I joked.

We drove up to the parking lot just above the kiddy park, and that was where I switched onto the dirt trail.

"Shortcut."

The trail went up to the top of the hill, where it looked out over the entire west end of Thousand Oaks.

"Wow…" said Isabel. "It's almost like the rain back when I first told you…"

"You mean, almost as romantic?"

"Yeah…"

It was a warm night, so we got out of the car.

"So, you were saying? Back at the house?"

She leaned forward to kiss me. It was amazing.

((A/N: Now, sadly, I'd like to explain what a first kiss/makeout between a couple is like, but at the moment of writing, I have no idea. Be prepared for an update at a moment's notice! But for now, I'm going to skip that part. NEXT MORNING-))

I woke up back at the house, on the couch, next to Isabel. She slept so quietly…

"Mornin', sunshine." My god brother was on the chair next to the couch, playing NFS: The Run, very quietly.

"What time is it?" I inquiried.

"'Bout 9." Realizing I wasn't sure if he meant AM or PM, as I felt like I had slept for six months, he added "AM."

"Better than I would have guessed. We got home what, 3?"

"You still did better than Ben and Erin. They're still upstairs, fast asleep. Would check on them, but that would be a little creepy…"

"Wow. Yeah, little creepy."

"Hey, where did Ben get that car? I figured he just had that NSX."

"Yeah… It's fun to have a software designer for an uncle."

"Hey," said Isaac, lifting up his arms to display the house around him. "It's fun to have parents with a house in Malibu."

"Good point."

At this point. Ben came downstairs.

"Gooooooood morning," he sighed. At this, Isabel woke up.

"Wha- Huh? Where- ? Oh yeah…"

"Well, aren't we a little groggy?" I chided. "Need another espresso?"

"No, I think I need an asprin. My head HURTS…"

"No duh. You drank, like, four beers last night."

((KIDS! Beer = hangover.))

"Meh." She obviously didn't want to talk.

"I'm gonna go out to the safeway," I announced. "Back in an hour."

The Challenger hadn't changed much from last night. It was a little warmer from the sunlight, and there were no more beer bottles in the back seat, but Isabel's puke was still in a bag in the glove box. I stopped at a trash can and dumped it. _No beer for you once we're in L. A., my friend._


End file.
